ARCHIVE

MORE

Florence City Council started spending early in 2019, voting Monday to pay a $25,000 deductible for removal of asbestos from the city’s gymnasium floor.

The deductible will be paid from the city’s $90,000 capital improvement fund.

ACM Asbestos Removal will start the abatement the second or third week of February and needs two weeks to complete the work.

Next step will be for council members to decide whether they want a wood floor or concrete. Cost will be covered by an insurance payment of up to $75,000 after water damaged the old wood floor.

“There’s no price advantage to the city,” mayor Bob Gayle said. “Either way we’re going to be out the $25,000. It comes down to what’s going to work best.”

The council discussed details for concrete, but options for wood still should be looked into, councilman Reilly Reid said.

“You still want apples to apples,” he said. “You don’t just want to price concrete and say that’s what we run.”

The floor needs to be done before the last weekend in March so Marion County’s chapter of the conservation organization Quail Forever can use the space.

The council preceded Monday’s meeting with a special meeting Jan. 2, at which a purchase for three new trucks was approved.

The purchases were approved 3-1, with councilman Trayce Warner opposed.

The purchase was a package deal of $15,000 for a ’93 Ford F-150, an ’04 Chevrolet Silverado, and an ’84 Ford F-800 dump truck. The original intent was to get a pair of pickups, but the dump truck was added for $4,800.

The choice to buy the F-800 was made without enough information, Warner said.

“I’m really hanging up on the dump truck,” she said. “It probably would be a good investment, but I don’t like being rushed into a $5,000 investment.”

Florence currently uses a flatbed, but the F-800 is easier to spread rock with and has more versatility, councilman Matt Williams said.

“If we wanted to purchase asphalt from the state, county, or whomever, that’s a perfect truck for it,” he said.